Spectacular Views

One of my favorite ways to get to know a city or town or countryside is by walking or running it depending upon the difficulty of the terrain. While I was in London, I did a run around the neighborhood near my hostel. It was lovely, but nothing compared to some of the runs I've done since I've been up here in the north. A theme of my blog from now on will probably be views that I see on my runs. So, without further ado, here is a run I did to Loch Brora a few weeks ago.

The beginning of my run was along a road through a farming community called Doll, which is technically where my farm is. From my travels through Scotland, I've realized that most of the houses are white, which contrasts beautifully with the rain darkened mountains and hills.

After a while on the road I finally came to the ford and bridge which I would cross to get to the path leading to the loch.

The beginning of my trail to the loch. Most of the running done around here would probably be classified more as trail running rather than road running and my expensive running shoes took a turn for the worst in the boggy bits along this trail.

Running through the forest gave me a feeling of being chased, and my speed increased in relation to that. I ended up running six miles total in a little over an hour, which was incredibly impressive.

When the hills around Brora aren't covered in snow, they're usually rain darkened. When it doesn't rain it snows and when it doesn't snow it rains, so everything is dark and green here. I've never seen such deep colors.

Surprisingly, it was a very still day, so the loch reflected the hills almost perfectly. There tends to be a lot of wind here, and at least once we've had winds so strong they knock hay nets into the creek or tear off bits of the roof over the feed room.

I know that Beauty and the Beast was supposed to be in France, but there have been multiple occasions when my runs have made me think of Beauty and the Beast. These eerie looking trees and some on the run to Dunrobin castle brought the feeling out the most.

Finally, on my way back I once again crossed the bridge and got back onto the country road. The bridge wasn't so bad to cross over, except for the small bit where it swung heavily with every step I took as I was running. Only a bit scary.

My favorite part about my runs so far hasn't been the beauty of the scenery, but the amount of times I've been lost. I tend to look only briefly at a map or go by the basic directions of someone in the area, rather than following any set trails. When I was in London, I took a couple wrong turns and ended up running further than I intended. In fact, that tends to be the theme when it comes to my runs. I usually run longer than I originally planned. On my run to Dunrobin castle they were doing forestry work and I had to sneak through someone's yard which had signs posted stating, "Strictly Private." During this run, I accidentally stuck to the forest road instead of the walking trail and had to climb over a fence. 

In my next entry, I'll talk about my trip to the Isle of Skye and Western Scotland where, in keeping with my tradition, I got lost on quite a few occasions both driving and walking. I also managed to see most of the things I intended to see while in Scotland in a three day trip.